For six years, Li Yanyue lived as a nameless palace maid, scrubbing floors and keeping her head down. The court was a viper’s nest, and survival meant never drawing attention—especially not from the Emperor.

But fate had other plans.

One night, she is summoned to the Emperor’s private chambers… and his eyes widen in shock.
“You’re alive…”

To the world, Yanyue is a servant. But to him, she is the woman he was once promised to marry—the noble daughter of the Li clan, slaughtered in a political purge years ago.

Taking her back as Empress would ignite a war with the family who helped him seize the throne.
Keeping her as a maid would kill the last shred of his heart.

And so begins their dangerous game—of secrets, of desire, of survival—where every stolen glance could be the death of them both.

The moon hung low and full over the palace, its silver light casting long shadows across stone courtyards and whispering bamboo groves.


Inside the Emperor's study, the air was thick with the scent of incense and unease.


Zhao Wenzhi sat behind his desk, a map of the palace spread before him, flicking through lists of names and secret reports.


Yanyue stood close, watching the sharp lines of his face soften in the candlelight.


"The traitor will make a mistake," Zhao said quietly. "We just need to be ready when they do."


Her fingers twined nervously. "And if it's someone we never suspected?"


He looked up, eyes fierce. "Then we learn who to trust—and who to discard."


Chief Eunuch Meng was ordered to deliver a false message—one that supposedly revealed a secret meeting of the Black Lotus Sect. The note was carefully traced back to a specific servant.


Zhao and Yanyue watched in silence from the shadows of the corridor.


Meng accepted the note, glanced around, and slipped it into his sleeve without a second thought.


Yanyue's breath caught. That gesture—the casual hiding—was not one of innocence.


"Where did you get this note?" Zhao demanded, his voice a whip crack.


Meng hesitated, then said, "It was slipped to me in the servants' quarters. I thought it a trick."


"I don't know," he said, eyes flickering. "A shadow in the night."


Yanyue pressed forward. "You're lying. You know more than you admit."


Meng's face hardened. "And you think you're the only one hiding secrets?"


Zhao's hand dropped to his sword. "Enough."


As Meng was taken away for questioning, Yanyue caught a glance from Zhao—one filled with both warning and reluctant trust.


But outside, the court whispered louder than ever.


In a dark chamber beneath the city, the Black Lotus leader unfurled a scroll.


"Prepare the final move. The Emperor's wife will be ours—or she will die trying."


Chapter 12 - The Test of Shadows